ED to Go Forward with Changes to Campus Security Regulations

On September 19, the Department of Education announced it will establish a negotiated rulemaking committee to address regulatory changes to campus safety and security reporting requirements mandated by the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). VAWA, reauthorized last spring, included several provisions directed at colleges and universities, including required policies, new statistics, and educational outreach efforts. NACUBO previously detailed the expanded reporting and policy requirements as well as preliminary guidance issued by ED for institutions to comply with these changes.

Because business officers oversee campus security functions on most campuses, NACUBO plans to nominate representatives to participate on this negotiated rulemaking committee; the deadline for nominations is October 21. The committee is scheduled to meet on the following dates:

Session 1: January 13-14, 2014

Session 2: February 24-25, 2014

Session 3: March 31-April 1, 2014

Under the provisions of the Higher Education Act, ED must use the formal negotiated rulemaking process to draft most revisions to Title IV regulations, including changes to the campus security regulations under the Clery Act. ED will aim to complete the effort and publish final regulations by November 1, which will generally take effect in July 2015.

More to Come

This is the second negotiating committee ED will convene this year to address a single issue. A committee focusing on the contentious rules for so-called gainful employment programs held its first meeting in early September. In a notice last May, ED had floated the idea of holding a negotiated rulemaking session to address a wide-ranging variety of regulations. In response, NACUBO submitted testimony arguing that several topics, such as VAWA, required the participation of different sets of stakeholders and should be conducted separately.

In its September announcement, ED noted that it continues to review testimony and public comments regarding other rulemaking topics. Still under consideration are cash management of Title IV funds, regulations designed to prevent fraud, state authorization for programs offered through distance education or correspondence education, state authorization for foreign locations of institutions located in a state, clock-to-credit-hour conversion, the definition of “adverse credit” for borrowers in the Plus Loan program, and campus-based federal student aid program reforms. ED has not yet decided when to form committees regarding these topics but anticipates an announcement in the coming months.